Evaporator coil support for a room air conditioner

ABSTRACT

According to the present invention, apparatus is provided for mounting an evaporator coil within an indoor section of an air conditioner. The air conditioner includes an indoor section having a housing in which an evaporator coil having a top and vertically extending tube sheets is mounted. The evaporator is supported by a horizontally extending support surface formed at the front end of the housing for supporting the lower ends of the tube sheets. First and second vertically extending evaporator support structures are disposed at each end of the horizontally extending support surface. Each of the first and second support structures are adapted to receive one of the tube sheets therein as the evaporator is displaced downwardly into engagement therewith and towards engagement with the horizontally extending support surface. A scroll structure for directing air flow through the indoor section is provided with vertically extending evaporator support channels which are in axial alignment with the vertically extending evaporator support structure in the housing. The scroll structures are adapted to be engaged with the upper ends of the tube sheets following engagement of the evaporator and tube sheets with the vertically extending evaporator support structure.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates generally to air conditioning systems and, moreparticularly, it relates to an arrangement for mounting the evaporatorcoil in a room air conditioner.

BACKGROUND ART

The indoor section of a room air conditioner or the indoor section of asplit system air conditioner typically includes a housing which hasmounted therein the evaporator coil, an indoor fan, electrical controls,and structure for directing room air to the evaporator coil andredirecting conditioned back into the space to be cooled. Designers ofroom air conditioners are constantly striving to increase the capacityof and efficiency of their units and at the same time reduce the sizeand costs of their products. The fewer the number of components, and thefewer the number of fasteners necessary to assemble those componentsresults in a more cost effective air conditioner as a result of thedecease in material and labor costs.

It is accordingly considered desirable to provide on indoor section of aroom air conditioner wherein the mounting of the evaporator coil iscarried with no fasteners and is supported by molded plastic componentsforming a part of the air conditioner housing and other support assupplied by components for directing the flow of air therethrough.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

According to the present invention, apparatus is provided for mountingan evaporator coil within an indoor section of an air conditioner. Theair conditioner includes an indoor section having a housing in which anevaporator coil having a top and vertically extending tube sheets ismounted. The evaporator is supported by a horizontally extending supportsurface formed at the front end of the housing for supporting the lowerends of the tube sheets. First and second vertically extendingevaporator support structures are disposed at each end of thehorizontally extending support surface. Each of the first and secondsupport structures are adapted to receive one of the tube sheets thereinas the evaporator is displaced downwardly into engagement therewith andtowards engagement with the horizontally extending support surface. Ascroll structure for directing air flow through the indoor section isprovided with vertically extending evaporator support channels which arein axial alignment with the vertically extending evaporator supportstructure in the housing. The scroll structures are adapted to beengaged with the upper ends of the tube sheets following engagement ofthe evaporator and tube sheets with the vertically extending evaporatorsupport structure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention may be better understood and its objects and advantageswill become apparent to those skilled in the art by reference to theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is an perspective view of a room air conditioner which embodiesthe features of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the air conditioner of FIG. 1 with theupper cover, front grill portions and other selected components removedtherefrom;

FIG. 3 is a top elevational view of the air conditioner of FIG. 1 withthe upper housing and other components removed therefrom;

FIG. 3A is an enlarged view of the left front section of FIG. 3;

FIG. 3B is an enlarged view of the right front section of FIG. 3;

FIG. 4 is a partially exploded perspective view of the air conditionerof FIG. 1 with certain components removed therefrom;

FIG. 5 is a top plan view of the lower housing and basepan of the airconditioner of FIG. 1 with many of the components removed;

FIG. 6 is a partial perspective view of the air conditioner of FIG. 1;and

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along the line 7--7 of FIG. 6.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION AND INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

With reference initially to FIG. 1, an air conditioner 2 includesgenerally an indoor section 4 and an outdoor section 6. The airconditioning unit 2, includes a substantially rectangular housing 12which includes a lower housing section 14, an upper housing section 16,and an indoor grill section 18. The lower housing section 14 is mountedin a metal support pan 20, and the entire room air conditioner isadapted to be positioned in a rectangular opening in an exterior wall oron a windowsill in a room where cooling is desired, with the indoorgrill section 18 facing into the room as is conventional.

The housing section 12 and 14 and the grill 18 are preferably made froma molded plastic material. As best seen in FIGS. 2 through 6, the entireair conditioning unit 2 is supported on a basepan 8 molded integrallywith and forming the bottom of the lower housing 14. Extending upwardlyfrom the basepan, and integrally formed with left and right sidewalls 10and 11, respectively, is a vertically extending partition 13 whichseparates the indoor 4 and outdoor 6 sections.

FIG. 2 illustrates the unit 2 with the upper housing section 16 and theindoor grill section 18 removed. Again, as is conventional, the unitcomprises an indoor refrigerant to air heat exchanger 22 (hereinafter"evaporator coil") and an inside or evaporator fan 24. Air from thespace to be conditioned by the system is drawn by action of theevaporator fan 24, through inlet louvers 26 formed in the indoor grillsection 18 and is directed through the evaporator coil 22 where the airis cooled. The cooled air is then directed back into the space to becooled by a scroll assembly 28, which, in turn, directs the air throughan indoor conditioned air discharge assembly 30 forming part of thegrill 18.

In a fully assembled unit, the evaporator fan 24 is located within thescroll to cause the above-described air flow. The scroll has beenremoved from several of the drawing Figures in order to clearly show thedetails of the evaporator coil support of the present invention.

With continued reference to FIG. 2, the unit also includes, as isconventional, an outdoor refrigerant to air heat exchanger or coil 32(hereinafter "condenser coil 32"), a condenser fan 34 and a compressor36. In operation, ambient air enters the housing 12 through a number oflouvered air inlets 38 located in the top and sides of the housingsections 14 and 16. The air entering the inlets 38 is then drawn throughthe outdoor fan 34 and is directed through the condenser coil 32 beforeexiting through discharge openings 40 in the back of the housing 12. Asis best seen in FIG. 2, both the evaporator fan 24 and the condenser fan34 are driven from opposite ends of a single drive shaft of a commondrive motor 42 mounted in the outside section 6 of the housing 12.

Looking now at FIGS. 3, 3A and 3B, a top view of the evaporator coil 22,as supported in the front end 44 of the basepan 8 of lower housingsection 14 is illustrated. The evaporator coil 22 includes a left-handtube sheet 46 and a right-hand tube sheet 48. As is conventional, tworows of heat exchanger tubes 50 interconnected by hairpin turn ends 52extend between the tube sheets to define a continuous flow path forrefrigerant therethrough. A plurality of vertically extending heatexchange fins 54 are carried by the tubes and extend substantiallyvertically and parallel to the tube sheets 46 and 48.

Support of the evaporator coil 22 will now be described in connectionwith FIGS. 2 through 6. FIGS. 4, 5 and 6 illustrate the unit with theevaporator coil 22 and many other components removed in order toillustrate the support structure.

Each of the tube sheets 46 and 48 has an elongated U-shaped crosssection with short legs 56 and 58, respectively, extending to the leftas viewed in the drawing figures. Looking first at the support for theleft-hand tube sheet 46 and with particular reference to FIG. 3A, avertically extending support channel 60 is integrally molded into thebasepan and the inside of the left wall 10 of the lower housing section14. The channel 60 comprises a first section 64 formed integrally withthe wall 10 and extending substantially parallel to the evaporator coil22. A second section 66 extends perpendicular to and forwardly of thefirst section 64 and a third shorter section 68 extends to the right andsubstantially parallel to the evaporator coil 22. Extending from theright of the lower end of the second section 66 is a short wall section70 which is spaced from the third wall section 68 by a distancesubstantially equal to the thickness of the rear leg 58 of the tubesheet 48. Accordingly, the rear leg 58 of the tube sheet 48 is adaptedto engage the rearwardly facing surface 72 of the third channel section68 and to be received within the space defined between that surface andthe short wall section 70.

Looking now at FIG. 3B, the rear leg 58 of the right hand tube sheet 48is adapted to engage a rearwardly facing surface 74 defined by avertically extending channel 76 having a cross section substantiallyidentical to that of the channel 60 described in detail for support ofthe left-hand tube sheet 46. The channel 76 on the right-hand side ismolded into the basepan of the lower housing section 14. As with theleft-hand tube sheet, the rear leg 58 of the right hand tube sheet isadapted to engage the rear surface 72 of the channel 60. Unlike theleft-hand tube sheet, however, support of the right-hand tube sheet isprovided in both a lateral and front-to-rear position by a verticallyextending substantially cross-shaped section 78, which is adapted toengage both the rearwardly facing surface of the rear leg 58 as well asthe right-hand facing wall 80 of the right-hand tube sheet 48.

Further positioning of the evaporator coil 22 is provided by engagementof the front leg 56 of the left-hand tube sheet 46 with a right-handfacing wall 86 molded into the front of the lower housing section 14. Ina similar fashion, a left-hand facing wall molded into the front of thelower housing section 14 is adapted to engage the right-hand facing wall88 of the right-hand tube sheet 48.

As best shown in FIG. 2, the lower ends of the tube sheets 46 and 48 ofthe evaporator coil 22 are supported by a condensate drain pan 92 formedat the front end of the basepan 8 of the lower housing section 14. Thecondensate drain pan 92 is defined by a lower horizontal surface 94which serves to support the lower ends of the tube sheets and avertically extending perimeter wall section 96. The perimeter wall 96includes short outwardly extending sections 98 and 100 at the left andright-hand sides thereof and an elongated section 102 whichinterconnects the short sections 98 and 100. It will be noted that thetube sheet supporting walls 86 and 88 described above are formed in theelongated wall section 102.

As best seen in FIGS. 4 and 5, the horizontal surface 94 of thecondensate drain pan 92 is provided with a plurality of small upstandingsupport pads 104 at both the left and right-hand ends thereofimmediately underlying the lower ends of the left and right tube sheets46 and 48. When the evaporator coil is installed as described above, thelower ends of the tube sheets 46 and 48 engage the pads 104. As aresult, the tube sheets and, accordingly, the lower ends of the heatexchange fins 54 of the coil are supported such that they are spacedfrom the horizontal surface 94.

With reference now to FIGS. 4, 6 and 7, it will be seen that the airdirecting scroll 28 comprises an upper and lower section 106 and 108,respectively. Both scroll sections are made from a foamed plasticmaterial. It should be appreciated that from the description above inconnection with the indoor fan 24 and the scroll 28, that the fan 24 isadapted to be received within the scroll 28. Accordingly, with referencewith FIG. 4, the lower scroll section 108 is shown installed in the airconditioning unit prior to installation of the evaporator fan 24therein. It will be noted from reference to FIG. 4 that the scrollcontains a main body section 110, which extends downwardly behind theevaporator support channels 60 and 76 and comprises a front wall 112having an opening 114 therein which serves as an inlet to the evaporatorfan 24. Positioned on opposite sides of the front wall 112 are a pair ofvertically extending evaporator support channels 116. Each of channels116 is in axial alignment with one of the vertically extending supportstructure described in detail hereinabove for the left and right-handtube sheets 46 and 48, respectively. As best seen in FIG. 7, thechannels 116 receive the rear leg 58 and a portion of the planar leg ofeach tube sheet therein.

Also formed integrally with the lower section 108 of the scroll 28 is anevaporator support ledge 118 which extends across the front of the lowersection 108 overlying the evaporator support channels 116 and the inletopening 114. As best seen in FIG. 6, the support ledge 118 engages theupper end of each of the tube sheets 46 and 48 and overlies the entiretop portion of the evaporator coil.

Accordingly, it should be appreciated that the evaporator coil ismounted within the indoor section of the housing by simply sliding theleft and right-hand tube sheets 46 and 48 into engagement with theirrespective vertically extending support structures as described above.The thus installed evaporator is then engaged by the lower section 108of the scroll 28 as described above with the support channels 116 andthe support ledge 118 providing additional lateral and vertical support,respectively. Such attachment is carried out without the need for anyfasteners.

What is claimed is:
 1. An air conditioner of the type having an indoorsection which includes a housing, the improvement comprising:anevaporator coil having a top and vertically extending tube sheets atopposite ends thereof; a horizontally extending evaporator supportsurface formed at the front end of said housing for supporting the lowerends of said tube sheets; first and second vertically extendingevaporator support structures, one disposed at each end of saidhorizontally extending support surface, and each adapted to receive oneof said tube sheets therein as said evaporator is displaced downwardlyinto engagement therewith and towards engagement with said horizontallyextending support surface; and a scroll structure for directing air flowwithin said indoor section, said scroll structure having verticallyextending evaporator support channels formed therein in axial alignmentwith said vertically extending evaporator support structure, said scrollstructures being adapted to be engaged with upper ends of said tubesheets following engagement of said evaporator and tube sheets with saidvertically extending evaporator support structure.
 2. The apparatus ofclaim 1 wherein said scroll structure further includes a horizontallyextending evaporator retaining structure extending between saidvertically extending support channel and forwardly thereof, saidchannels being adapted to engage said top of said evaporator when saidvertically extending evaporator support channels of said scroll are infull engagement with said tube sheets.